Is There Evidence to Support the Use of Social Skills Interventions for Students with Emotional Disabilities?

Scholars and practitioners advocate for the use of social skills interventions for students with emotional disabilities because significant social skills deficits are common among these students. Yet contemporary practices must be vetted for empirical evidence of their efficacy and effectiveness to ensure students are provided appropriate services. In this systematic review, the authors evaluated research examining the effectiveness of social skills interventions for students with emotional disabilities. The authors applied quality indicators to appraise the characteristics of the nine studies identified and found that they did not meet these rigorous methodological criteria. This review underscores the need for more and better studies of school-based social skills interventions within this population to support using such interventions with students with emotional disabilities.